She takes a pastry from the plate and sits against the wall. She tucks the stray hair back beneath her veil. The hair is slightly damp with sweat. She almost frowns and then the corners of her lips turn up and her eyes begin to water. This is the first wedding she has danced at in many, many years.
The last one was her daughter’s. Oh the girl was beautiful that day. She was so happy. It makes a mother happy to see her daughter happy. They had all danced and laughed. The marriage was good. The two of them still loved each other.
She thought longingly of her husband. He had been a good man too. It was rare though that a couple would live long together-so many diseases and accidents were visited on the people. Her people were better off than most. They at least washed on a regular basis. The Romans-they didn’t.
Ah anyway, she thinks and leans her back against the wall. It is still strange to feel the wall down the length of her back. It wasn’t so long ago that she was bent over, able only to look at her feet. The wall would have touched just her shoulder. The memory of the pain sent a shock through her. She sat up straight. Then, she smiled- a full smile this time.
Jesus! Thank God for Jesus. He saw her in the temple. He saw her bent over, miserable in pain, tired of looking at nasty toes. He saw her! He touched her and her back straightened and she looked HIM in the eyes. They said he said something to her but all she heard was the sound of heaven. Still, late at night she holds on to that little whisper of sound. Oh, to go there someday.
She can still feel where his hand touched her. Her heart jumps every time she thinks of it. Her heart jumps like a silly young girl in love but she knows it is so much more than silly young love.
She snorts a little under her breath and the smile fades. She bites into the pastry and lets the honey fill her mouth. She saw how they treated him. She saw them crucify him. They crucified her savior! She knows that he could have stopped it. She felt that rush of power and heard heaven. He could have stopped it. But he didn’t. She winces at the image in her mind.
As her back teeth grind into the pastry and the sweet honey flows from the layers she relaxes a little. They say he rose from the dead. His followers say they have seen him. They say they have eaten with him. This makes her happy. This makes sense. God could not be killed and she knows he was God. The wrinkles on her forehead spring up at that thought. He was man too. Another bite of the honey and she smiles again. It isn’t for her to understand.
All she has to understand is that because of him she can dance. The tambourines start up again. She rejoices in the strength of her legs and back. She licks the last bits of honey from her fingers and joins the dance.
In her heart, she knows he is alive. She knows that he saved her. She laughs with a heart as light as a child’s. She knows he will call her home when her time is done. Every footstep is a prayer of thanksgiving as she dances at her granddaughter’s wedding.

Love-not a good title but compelling

Love is messy. Love makes people do the strangest things.

I knew this one guy. He loved this girl. Well he thought he loved this girl but I guess somewhere deep inside he hadn’t figured out what love was so when he said he loved this girl he probably meant it but …but his meaning was slightly twisted from the original intent of the word. See he said he loved her and he wanted to be with her all the time. And she had no clue. Really, she didn’t know he “loved” her. She knew he would follow her around. Everywhere she went, she would catch a glimpse of him hiding behind something and staring at her. She didn’t think that was love. He thought about her day and night. He talked to his friends about her. The image of her grew and grew in his mind until all he could think about was her. Meanwhile, she’s living life wondering every once in awhile “why is this guy always around”. He thinks she is deliberately avoiding him. He starts to see all her actions as somehow being directed to him. “oh” he thinks, “did you see that? She moved her hair out of her eyes with her left hand. That’s how she shows she’s hiding something.” One day, she brushes her hair out of her eyes with her left hand and he loses it. He comes flying from behind the locker door, screaming at her. She’s so confused. She just looks at him. He thinks that means she hates him. That she’s having an affair. So he throws his fists in the air and screams and screams at her and she runs away. He’s standing there angry and humiliated.
There’s another man. He’s a good man. He loves his wife and children. Every day he goes to work and does what he should do. Some days he messes up. Some days he says the wrong things to his wife. Some days she hears the wrong things. But overall, he’s crazy about her and the kids. He does these amazing things every day. Besides going to work, he comes home even though home is a house full of women and children. He smiles and laughs and plays with them. He takes care of them. He makes sure they have the things they need. He even takes care of himself-and if you know most people, you know that is a very strange thing. If you ask him why, he’ll tell you it’s because of love.
I know this other person. This person was the most powerful person in the world. He was there at the creation of the world and he already knows the end. His dad said there is a very hard thing to do and you are the only who can do it. This person loved so much that he went and did that very hard thing. He became a man and lived here. This was the “here” before indoor toilets and hot showers and clean food. This was the “here” that involved dirt and heat and pain and no iced tea. He lived here as a poor man even though his father was the ruler of the universe. Even stranger than that, he allowed himself to be crucified. He allowed himself to be humiliated and beaten and ridiculed. He did all of it for love. How crazy is that? He didn’t stay dead though. He is alive now. He is alive and he still loves us so much that he changes our lives. Every day he brings us change. The kind of change that makes us better, more loving people. He causes the best changes and the changes that hurt the most.
This is crazy love. This is love that is and will be. This is love demonstrated in all its possibilities. It isn’t sneaking around and wishing. It isn’t flawed. This love doesn’t make mistakes. This kind of love is so much more than we can even think about. This love is messy-covered and washed in blood. This is God love. This is amazing.

Thank You

  Our God is magnificent. This may seem like a tiny statement. It could be a statement uttered in ignorance of any other god. In this case it isn't an empty, tiny statement. The statement rings from mountain to mountain. The stones themselves sing of His greatness.  Flowers bloom in praise of our God.  Waterfalls dance from deep within the forest to echo the angels' song.  Brothers and sisters in Christ lift their hands in every corner of the world reaching for our God.
  Some of our future brothers and sisters do not know our Lord.  Many are still striving to serve angry gods.  They are watching every move wondering which will stir their god's wrath.  Then when evil follows on evil, when every pain of life is returned without love, they cry out to another form of god. The Hindu people serve many gods and goddesses. The art of their deities is amazing and terrifying.  They say that each of the gods and goddesses are aspects of the one unnamed god force. The descriptions of the deities do not mention love.  Battle is a frequent theme but not love.
  The Greeks had a multitude of gods and goddesses.  They loved the humans but not in a pure way.  There are so few gods whose central theme is love and so many people who are searching for that love.
   The art work of our God is the sky with its stars and moon and sun. The aspects of our God are not masked as little gods with little purposes. While we cannot understand every part of our God, it is ok. We can see His love for us in the wildflowers that line the roads. We can taste His joy in cakes and bread and spices.  We can drink in the hope only He offers in the clean water and warm coffee.  Our God is the beginning and the end, the giver of all good and perfect things, He loves us. He who carved the most beautiful canyons loves us. He who designed the intricate chemicals that form life loves us.  No matter what happens in this life we rest in the joy and peace and hope that our God is with us and when we are done here, He will take us home. Thank you Lord and Father that You sent Your son to die for our sins. Thank you that Jesus defeated death through His resurrection and that through Him we can know You.  We give you praise that we do not live in uncertainty. Because You are You we live in the knowledge that we are loved.  Thank you. Now let us go and do Your will.

Beauty

    There is a color that dances in the sky on certain mornings. It is an almost orange, soft peach with pure white sparkles. I would catch that color if I could. I would catch that color and paint every surface I could reach. It is an amazing color. It is rich and soft, an explosion of downy feathers.  It is beautiful.
    The serpent is beautiful. Its movements mirror water flowing.  The scales shimmer with indescribable intricacies like diamonds and opals.  It is silent. It appears and disappears in waves through grass or under twisted metal.  Chains in my jewelry box lay carelessly dropped over one another like the snakes curled together in their dens. There is an unknown power that lies in the snake's belly. A frightening strength that rises up at will and strikes the unaware.
   Beauty is strange concept.  People can be beautiful inside or out or sometimes both. The same object can be seen as beautiful and horrible. The same words can dance with joy and sink in despair.  Beauty comes in the morning. It rises in the clouds with that certain color painted miraculously across the sky. Beauty arises and shouts for our attention. It shouts out "Rejoice! The Lord our God is the Great I AM"